Evolution@Home

Evolution@Home is the first parallel computing project for evolutionary biology. The aim of Evolution@Home is to improve understanding of evolutionary processes. This is achieved by simulating individual-based models. The first such model targets the accumulation of mutations in asexual populations and is implemented in Simulator005. The software of Evolution@Home is not the first to simulate this, but previous simulations were hampered by lack of memory (needed for looking at large populations) and lack of computing power (needed for observing long-term evolution and many different parameter combinations). The possibility of parallel computing has allowed Evolution@Home to move the realism of simulated parameter combinations significantly towards observed reality.

Currently the project can be operated semi-automatically, which means that a participant has to manually download tasks from the webpage and submit results by email using this method of operation. Yoyo@home used a BOINC wrapper to completely automate this project by automatically distributing tasks and collecting their results. Therefore, the BOINC version was a complete distributed computing project. Yoyo@home has declared its involvement in this project finished.